Wood fracture pattern during the water desorption process

Abstract

Wood is a hygroscopic material and its mechanical properties change with moisture content below the fiber saturation point. Fracture characteristic is one of most important mechanical properties of wood and often is taken as an important safety design factor for wood as an engineered structural material. The aim of this paper is to investigate the effect of moisture content changes on wood fracture properties, focusing on fracture behavior and patterns with different crack orientations of Betula platyphylla Suk. and Pinus bungeana in two different desorption processes. These two desorption processes were, respectively, from fiber saturation point to an equilibrium moisture content corresponding to 82.4%RH at 20ºC and from 82.4%RH to 35.2%RH at the same temperature of 20ºC.